Solvent Dependent Linear and Nonlinear Optical Characteristics of Acid Blue 3 Dye.

The polar solvents dependent linear and third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) characteristics of acid blue 3 (AB 3) dye has been reported in this paper. A low power continuous wave (CW) diode laser working at 635 nm wavelength was used to perform the Z-scan experiments in the present study. AB 3 dye was dissolved with different polar solvents of 1-propanol, ethanol, dimethyl sulfonate (DMSO) and water at a concentration of 0.01 mM. The nonlinear index of refraction (n2) of AB 3 dye was ascribed to self-defocusing effect, and nonlinear coefficient of absorption (β) signifies the behaviors of saturable and reverse saturable absorption. The real and imaginary components of the third-order NLO susceptibility of AB 3 dye in the present polar solvents have been measured to be of the order of 10─6 esu. The influence of polar solvents on third-order NLO susceptibility of the dye sample studied has been discussed. The second-order hyperpolarizability (γ) of AB 3 dye has also been studied and estimated to be of the order of 10─30 esu. The experimental results suggest that AB 3 dye may be a promising candidate for applications in nonlinear optics.